[aprssig] APRS symbols 1.3? FLOOD Gages and Radiation

[Bob Bruninga]

OK, How this!?  

Flood Gauge people please give us feedback!

This proposal is a continuation of the great symbol set expansion proposed
under aprs 1.2 back in 2007.  That is, that Overlay characters could be
added to ANY symbol, thus increasing the combined combination of symbol
indicators by hundereds.  Both Kenwood and Yaesu now already support
universal overlays in their radios.

This discussion of Radiation Hazards and Radiation Sensors has caused a
thorough re-look at where we stand.  We simply need to expand the overlays
for WX stations.  Currently /W and \W should be parsed for Weather.  So
shouldn't also #W with any overlay?  In that case, I propose the following
overlays for the WX symbol so they are backwards compatible to existing
symbol sets:

1) RW is a weather station highlighting its Radiation Sensor (#W)
2) FW is a weather station highlighting its Flood Gauge (was /w or \w)

These stations can automatically change their symbol depending on what is
going on.  If either the Radiation sensor or Flood gage is showing BENIGN
readings, then it can simply show the WX symbol (/W) but when elevated
readings of either sensor begin to rise, the station can change its symbol.
When a SERIOUS threshold is exceeded, these same stations can then change
their symbol to either of the following HAZARD symbols

3) RH is a Radiation Hazard OBJECT to HIGHLIGHT a radiation Hazard
4) FH is a FLOODING HAZARD to highlight a flooding hazard
5) WH is a WIND HAZARD

The result to client code is that only #W (weather) and #H (hazards) need to
be scanned for all Weather and other SENSOR data, not an ever incremental
change to code for each new symbol added.  Here is the impact on CODE?:
That is, now, only /W, \W and #W symbols need to be parsed for weather data
(which can include FLOOD data and Radiation data).. plus since 2007, /w and
\w for floods.

This seems like the most simplest and consistent approach.  BUT The problem
is that in 2007 we suggested /w for flood gages and \w for FLOODING events.
Has this made it into any NON-CHANGEABLE hardware or software?  Probably so.
Therefore, we still need to allow for legacy checking of /w and \w symbols
for weather and flood info.  But can we phase this out in the long term?

Flood gauge people, please comment.

Bob, wb4apr